Lotro: Producer’s Letter 2015 Thoughts

It’s been a great 2015 so far. I’m on the final weekend of my three week January vacation leave, and I’ve used that time wisely on Lotro, edging closer to Rank 12 with only 110, 000 renown to go. I also managed to squeeze in some quality vacation time with some buddies – we explored the Philippine island of Boracay, home to beautiful beaches, exquisite scenery and unlimited ale – it was a much needed getaway from work and game. I made a video of the trip and you can watch that here if anyone is interested in seeing Boracay.

Now, on to exciting Lotro news. The 2015 Producer’s Letter was released during my trip and I had to connect to my hotel’s wifi to soak in the excitement. It’s great news indeed!

From the screenshot above, there are six areas that Lotro’s executive producer Athena Peters highlighted as major initiatives for the year. PvMP and New Fellowship Challenges had me punching Boracay air in joy (though I should not have my hopes up that high from experience). Let’s take a look at each of these initiatives.

Legendary Items

The imbuement system was talked about awhile back, but its still good to reiterate why I think it’s a welcome change. Simply put, I think we can expect less hassle with Legendary Weapons and Class Items with the Osgiliath update. No more deconstructing your main weapons, no more cluttering your vault with legacies you wish to keep for your next weapon, which really, spells out an effort to reduce the grind with the LI system. I think it’s great that finally, your legendary weapon grows with you. However, don’t be too surprised if this imbument item ends up in the store. We’ll maybe get one free through the Epics, and then if you want more, you buy more kinda jig. It’s unfortunate, but they need to make that money, and I’ll be honest and say that this is something that I would pay for. Let’s wait for that developer diary of this system for more details.

New Fellowship Challenges

Yes! Yesss! Enough of your Big/Epic Battle rubbish. By all means do renew your focus on group content and instances! 2014 was a boring year for group PVE. I don’t care that other players are decked out in the best gear because their tolerance virtue for running your mundane Big/Epic battles are at 19. That’s not how I want to get the best gear, and I daresay I am not alone in this. Give us alternatives! Gives us 3mans! 6mans! Raids! I want to enter a dungeon feeling like a noob again. I want the boss to laugh at us when we wipe, and then roll on loot old school style when we bury him six feet under! Yes!

Quality of Life

Nothing earth moving, but its good to know that the team are on the issues*

*And in some cases, have been on these for years.

Episodic Content

What is this precious? This has me curious. So, I suppose it’s like seasonal content? Like festivals, that come and go once a year? What happens if I don’t finish the quest line in one of these episodic contents? Will it be gone forever? Is it like that Living Content thing in Guild Wars 2? Questions, questions that only time can answer. Looking forward to this developer diary too.

Server Population

*Crickets. Get it? Haha lame I know, but hey a toast to the crickets in some of the emptier servers. No idea what they have in mind, could be a mega-server, could be an inter-server group finder tool (/world pugs will still beat this tool flat) or it could just be words. We do need something though, especially for the lower pop servers. I know what its like, and I transferred. Here’s to hoping for something good. As for moving the EU servers back to EU, not sure if that is a good or bad thing, but hey, a toast to you peeps in that side of the world too.

PvMP

You gave us your word Turbine. Good to hear directly from you, that you are working on something PvMP related. I remember the new map discussion when it started long ago, and then it was dropped without further mention again for many a year. This is the year we’re heading to Osgiliath, so its a no brainer that the Osigiliath PvMP map is brought up. Very excited about this but again, cautious, as Turbine and PvMP are two words that don’t work well together. I’ll still be optimistic and hope this materializes. Fellow Freeps! Creeps! Rejoice and continue slaying each other in the 7 Year old Ettenmoors!

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4 responses to “Lotro: Producer’s Letter 2015 Thoughts”

Awesome summary…and is the MVP on LAndy good? Want a more detailed report soon..OK after you have recovered from all the beers from your vacation…sounds awesome 🙂 Now I will check the vid…(not been on holiday away in 4/5 years!) I’m sure I am gonna be jealous 🙂

Gosh, my apologies for the late reply. But yes! PvMP on Landy is great. So much more active, and I’ll post a more in-depth report when I can. I’ve had 2 months to recover from all that drinking. As for more surf, we wanted to, but our tour guide advised us against it on our free day, so we went cliff diving instead!

OH still plodding along…finally got to Rohan and am unimpressed by my War pony! I ended up spending the weekend grinding marks and meds in skirmishes… I am still having fun and will not right off mounted combat at such an early stage…just wish I instantly liked it…looks like work is needed…glad Landy suits you fine.